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Military spending is growing around the world and in 2017 it increased by 1.1 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. U.S. arms expenditures rose by $9.6 billion, driving the global rise and further consolidating the status of the United States as the world’s top spender on the military–by far. The U.S. spending on war is rooted in post-World War II “new Pentagon capitalism” that eventually became known as the military-industrial complex. The model, revolutionized by then-Army Chief of Staff and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower, ensured that the United States’ scientific research, technological and industrial capacity would become “organic parts of our military structure” in conditions of…

The US military is the most respected institution by the American people. According to investigations by the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense — investigations which were based on inspections of only portions of the Department’s financial records, not of all of them, and so the amount is incomplete — that Department had disappeared at least $21 trillion of funds from US taxpayers during the 18-year period 1998-2015. The US population, during that period, was around 300 million people; so, at a bare minimum, approximately $70,000 was being stolen (or otherwise disappeared at the US Defense Department) from each American during that time. However, $10 in 1998 was worth $14.54 in 2015;…

The Commission on National Defense Strategy for the US has just released to Congress its report “Providing for the Common Defense”, and it opens: “In the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, Congress charged this Commission with providing an independent, nonpartisan review of the 2018 National Defense Strategy and issues of US defense strategy and policy more broadly.” The report’s co-chairs, Eric S. Edelman and Gary Roughead, say in their accompanying letter to Congress, that “the United States will soon face a national security emergency.” It doesn’t describe that “emergency,” but uses it to argue that ‘defense’ spending needs to soar and all other spending by the Government — especially for…

Source: The Conscious Resistance August 23, 2018 Derrick Broze Donald Trump recently made it clear he will not accept any limitations on the U.S. military’s logistical support of the war in Yemen.On August 13, Donald Trump did what every president does, every single year, without question – he signed the annual military budget bill, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019. Some readers may recall that since 2011, the NDAA has included a provision which allows for indefinite detention of American citizens without a right to trial. Many of you may remember that President Obama had no problem signing the NDAA 2012 in 2011, which legalized the indefinite detention of…

Source: Caitlin Johnstone Rogue Journalist July 6, 2018 Caitlin Johnstone “A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.” ~ Major General Smedley Butler, War Is A Racket Imagine if someone became immensely wealthy by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of human beings and selling their skins for money. Would they not be remembered for generations as one of the most evil monsters…

Image credit Source: Activist Post March 20, 2018 By Nicholas West “Every year, more and more of the world’s population moves into cities. The number of megacities is growing exponentially. Both of these global patterns and their inevitable consequences for military operations are well documented. Yet we still do not have units that are even remotely prepared to operate in megacities. If we want to find success on the urban battlefields the US Army will inevitably find itself fighting on in the future, that needs to change.” — John Spencer, West Point scholar and former Ranger Instructor The change referred to above by John Spencer appears to be rushing in…

Source: Waking Times December 27, 2017 Isaac Davis We live in an era when a Nobel Peace Prize winner can oversee 8 years of war, thousands of extrajudicial drone bombings and killing of innocent people, and no one calls into question the credentials of the Nobel organization. As the Obama presidency came to its end, many hoped that we may see a turn for the better in terms of military spending and the overuse of military power as a form of international diplomacy, but our hopes have been officially dashed. The Trump administration is continuing the imperial legacy of modern American presidents and during his first year of office, the…

A giant U.S. flag is displayed during a military fly-over at Sports Authority Field at Mile High before an NFL football game between the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017, in Denver. (AP/Jack Dempsey) Polls show that Americans are tired of endless wars in faraway lands, but many cheer President Trump’s showering money on the Pentagon and its contractors, a paradox that President Eisenhower foresaw. Source: Mint Press News December 1, 2017 By JP Sottile The Military-Industrial Complex has loomed over America ever since President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of its growing influence during his prescient farewell address on Jan. 17, 1961. The Vietnam War followed shortly thereafter,…

by Lily Dane War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. – George Orwell The late United States Marine Corps Major General Smedley D. Butler is perhaps most famous for his post-retirement speech titled “War is a Racket.” In the early 1930s, Butler presented the speech on a nationwide tour. It was so popular that he wrote a longer version as a small book that was published in 1935. Butler points to a variety of examples, mostly from World War I, where industrialists whose operations were subsidized by public funding were able to generate substantial profits essentially from mass human suffering. The…

Paul Craig Roberts Prison Planet.com July 25, 2013 Amitai Etzioni has raised an important question: “Who authorized preparations for war with China?”. Etzioni says that the war plan is not the sort of contingency plan that might be on hand for an improbable event. Etzioni also reports that the Pentagon’s war plan was not ordered by, and has not been reviewed by, US civilian authorities. We are confronted with a neoconized US military out of control endangering Americans and the rest of the world. Etzioni is correct that this is a momentous decision made by a neoconized military. China is obviously aware that Washington is preparing for war with China.…

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Government and freedom are mutually exclusive.

Government is the problem, has always been the problem, and will always be the problem as long as we continue to feed it. Stop voting for it, funding it, doing its dirty work as an employee, contractor, or member of the military, and supporting it in any way and it will cease to exist. Only then will humanity be truly free.- Neo Vida